After reading the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, I was not surprised by anything I had read. Google+ can pretty much do what it likes with my data it collects according to its Terms of Service but its Policy and its motto 'Don't be evil', prevents it from using your information immorally.
From an old but interesting article-
http://trueslant.com/michaelshermer/2010/03/24/don%E2%80%99t-be-evil-why-google-made-the-right-decision-about-china/
When one uploads data or information onto Google, Google has the right to do the following-
...Give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works... communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services...That is a lot of rights to a lot of information. The good thing is that Google has a policy in place to guide as and help us understand what this means 'our' information will be used for, instead of just assuming the worst.
Google+ and therefor Google collects information about us at every and any point we interact we any service even remotely related to Google. Now the positive note here is what google says it will do with the data it collects, remember Don't be evil! The Privacy Policy says-
We use the information we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect Google and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content – like giving you more relevant search results and ads.Sure, Google collects a lot of data and is able to use any of this data as it wishes but from what I have gathered, it is all for our benefit! Why not have personalized ads, friend requests based on interests and mutual friends, Videos based previously +'d videos or mail marked as spam based on our history.
Since Google holds all of this information, there does seem to be an issue about its security. What if there is a breach and someone steals our identity? That would suck! Unfortunately, from what I could find, Google claims to hold no liability or responsibility for losses or damages in relation to data given to it via its services where it was not reasonably foreseeable to prevent. Google does however work very hard to ensure our information is safe and secure. This is for the benefit of every party involved in social networking. They claim to-
As mentioned earlier, it is in the best interests of every party to ensure all data is safe and secure. I also believe it is in the best interest of all parties that our data is combined and a valid profile about each of us is created. To move towards a Semantic Web, this is essential and also inevitable. I'm happy and more than willing to allow Google+ or Facebook or any well established Social Networking site to mine my behavior on their sites to create a profile to improve my experience, as long as everyone sticks by the one motto-
- We encrypt many of our services using SSL.
- We offer you two step verification when you access your Google Account, and a Safe Browsing feature in Google Chrome.
- We review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to systems.
- We restrict access to personal information to Google employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us, and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.
"Don't be evil"!!
I'll leave you with this video on the average consumer who is only scared of themselves.
Until next time.
Regards.
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